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hissy A PEW WoRDS 
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ABOUT 


MISSIONARY. SEMINARIES. 








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New-York : 


JOHN A. GRAY & GREEN, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS, 
16 anp 18 JacoB STREET. 


a 1865. Seg 














Ceperceaaangse 





A: FEW WORDS 


ABOUT 


MISSIONARY SEMINARIES. 


A FOREIGN MISSIONARY 


PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 





2-0-o———_——— 


New=¥Xork : 
JOHN A. GRAY & GREEN, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS, 
16 anp 18 JAcos Srreer. 


1865. 


=> “pay 


—— 


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PREFACE. 


——o-@-6= = 


Ir is not designed, in these pages, to advocate Mis- 
sionary Seminaries as substitutes for the cultivating 
of the missionary spirit at preéxisting Theological 
Institutions, but only as supplemental thereto. 

In what respects the ‘‘ Episcopal Missionary Train- 
ing-School,” at Gambier, Ohio, is designed to be 
supplemental and compensative, is set forth in the 
extract from the circular letter of the Managing 
Committee, quoted on page 14. 

In addition to such a strictly Missionary Training- 
School, there should be, at each Theological Insti- 
tution, a Professor of the History of Modern Mis- 
sions, and the Duties of Missionaries in the several 
Fields, as was recommended by the large Confer- 
ences of the Friends of Missions, held in New-York 
in 1854, and in Liverpool in 1859. Were this done, 
there would not be so very few men offering them- 
selves for the foreign field, nor such a lack of know- 
ledge and interest at home concerning missions 
abroad. 


4 


The few remarks here offered on the subject ap- 
peared first in The Christian Times, of this city, and 
they are republished in this form at the desire of 
some of the friends of the Missionary Training- 
School at Gambier. 

If they are blessed to the adding of one to the 
number of its friends and supporters, they will not 
have been written in vain. 


New-York, March 10, 1865. 


A FEW WORDS 
ABOUT MISSIONARY SEMINARIES. 


ee 


MISSIONARY SEMINARIES IN THE CHURCH OF 
ENGLAND. 


Tuat branch of work which is concerned with 
the calling out, education, and training of missionary 
laborers is, year by year, assuming greater and more 
distinct prominence in the Church of England. The 
missionary clergy of the two great Missionary Socie- 
ties now number six hundred and eighty-seven; but 
this is considered a small number to labor for the 
evangelization of well-nigh a world, especially as the 
clergy of that Church, in England and Wales, now 
number no less than eighteen thousand! The num- 
ber of students at the Church Missionary College, at 
Islington, is now fifty-five; at St. Augustine’s, Can- 
terbury, forty-two; and at St. Aidan’s College, Bir- 
kenhead, fifteen. The Church Missionary College has 
furnished two hundred and sixty clergy for the foreign 
field, and St. Augustine’s one hundred. 


6 


The Rey. Dr. Baylee, the founder of St. Aidan’s 
College, and now principal of it, says, that he is 
willing to receive into it men of a lower social class, 
and of very little education. All he asks is that they 
give satisfactory evidence of true conversion to God, 
and devotedness to His cause. They are put in class- 
es fit for them; and when they attain the necessary 
amount of knowledge, they enter the candidate 
class, (translating the Gospels in Greek, and a book 
in Latin.) If they show an aptitude in acquiring 
languages, their desire to go as missionaries to the 
heathen is granted; if not, then they are sent to 
some English colony, to labor among the English 
emigrants. Farther detailing the plan pursued with 
regard to missionary students at St. Aidan’s College, 
Dr. Baylee says, he now receives them for board and 
education at thirty pounds a college year, ‘and if 
any brother knew of any pious young man who pos- 
sessed the qualifications he had spoken of, and would 
prevail upon his friends to raise this amount annually, 
he would receive such with pleasure ; or if any one 
would pay thirty pounds in to his own hands, he 
would undertake to find a pious and suitable young 
man for preparation for this great work.” 

The students at the Church Missionary College, 
and at St. Augustine’s, are of a somewhat higher 
class, socially and educationally, than those admitted 
into St. Aidan’s; but even they are somewhat infe- 
rior in these respects to those admitted into the 
English Universities. And it should be borne in 


7 


mind that the men who have taken the greatest in- 
terest in the establishment of these separate Mis- 
sionary Theological Institutions, have also taken the . 
deepest interest in fostering the missionary spirit at 
Cambridge, Oxford, and Dublin Universities. One 
of the Secretaries of the Church Missionary Society 
goes to these seats of learning every year, and visits 
from returned missionaries are of frequent occur- 
rence, Fourteen years ago, some seventy men were 
in the habit of meeting in the rooms of Mr. Nichol- 
son, Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, for 
the purpose of fostering their missionary spirit; the 
number has now increased to about two hundred 
and fifty, and the meetings are no longer held in pri- 
vate rooms. This ‘Missionary University Prayer 
Union,” begun at Cambridge, has now extended it- 
self to Oxford and Dublin. Though the maintaining 
with spirit of this ‘Prayer Union” is considered of 
primal importance, other means and agencies are not 
neglected. The Rey. J. H. Titeomb says: “I have 
resided fourteen years in the University of Cam- 
bridge, and I may therefore state what is doing there 
in connection with missions. There are one or two 
annual university sermons, preached by request, for 
the express purpose of setting forth before students 
the missionary work. There is an officer who holds 
the appointment of Christian Advocate, whose duty 
it is to publish a work each year bearing upon the 
subject of Christianity in relation to various forms of 
idolatry and false philosophy throughout the world. 


8 


In addition to that, we have three divinity profess- 
ors, one of whom, by his office, is obliged to deliver 
periodically a series of lectures upon pastoral theol- 
ogy. The subject of missions, of course, comes 
within these lectures as a particular department. 
With regard to the students, although there is no 
professed or formal and stated examination in con- 
nection with missions, there is a yery large amount 
of exertion every term going forward among the 
young men on their behalf; and thus, without any 
formal training, they are being practically trained for 
their future work. Year after year numbers of 
young men come up from the very first term of their 
residence, determined to devote themselves to the 
missionary work. They meet with every fayor that 
the parochial ministers can give them in order to 
foster and encourage these principles. In connection 
with this body of young men there is a missionary 
reading-room, to which the publications of all Soci- 
eties are sent. There is, too, a large number of 
young men who are not merely interested in reading, 
but who deny themselves so far as to go, through 
evil report and good report, collecting in their various 
colleges contributions for the missionary cause.” 

As a result of this cultivating of the missionary 
spirit at the Universities, no less than forty of the 
European ordained missionaries of the Church Mis- 
sionary Society are University men; and this result 
encourages the friends of missions in England to 
lend all the aid they can toward maintaining a mis- 


9 


sionary spirit at these celebrated seats of learning. 
But the fact that only forty out of the one hundred 
and sixty English missionaries employed by the So- 
ciety are University men, teaches these same friends 
of missions that while they should not neglect the 
Universities, they must not rely too much upon them. 
As a general rule, men of a high social position are 
unwilling to go out as missionaries. For one Uni- 
versity man, who dedicates himself tothe work, 
there are three who do so of the condition in life 
to which Carey, Morrison, and Williams belonged. 

Of the first Christian missionaries, there was only 
one who was learned and scholarly; the others were 
called from their fishing-nets and their tax-gathering 
to be trained by the Master for their work ; and the 
Church, while aiming to get all the men of culture 
and high social position it can, should remember that 
“not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble 
are called ;” and while not neglecting the few such, 
the Church should ever be intent upon making ar- 
rangements for the support and training of the many 
who leave the plough, the work-shop, and counting- 
room, to dedicate themselves to their Master's service. 
This is the lesson that has been learned by the mem- 
bers of the English Church, and this is why it is that 
these separate Missionary Theological Institutions have 
been established. 


10 


ACTION OF THE WESLEYANS AND CONGREGA- 
TIONALISTS IN ENGLAND, 


When a similar course is proposed in our Church, 
there are those who reply at once, that we already 
have divinity schools such as they have not in the 
English Church, and that the missionary spirit should 
be cultivated, and men trained for the mission work 
in the schools we already have, and that separate 
missionary training institutions are unnecessary. 
There is some fanbei! in this remark ; and yet it should 
be borne in mind that those Bhvistan bodies in Eng- 
land which have theological institutions similar to our 
own divinity schools, feel the need of, and have re- 
solved to establish missionary training schools. 

The Wesleyans, for instance, haye a large and 
flourishing Theological Sear at Richmond, near 
London, under the presidency of the celebrated Dr. 
Thomas Jackson. An alumnus of this institution 
says that the candidates for the ministry “are made 
to pass through various courses of examination be- 
fore they are admitted into the Theological Institu- 
tion; and they are asked at every stage of their pro- 
gress, whether they feel a special inclination to the 
home or the foreign work ; but when they come into 
the Institution, there is no distinction whatever as to 
the training they receive there.” Finding those who 
do offer themselves for the foreign work to be too 
few in number, and to be defective in the training 
for their peculiar work, the Committee of the Wes- 


11 


leyan Missionary Society have resolved to establish 
a missionary theological school at Leeds, and we be- 
lieve that they have already entered upon the work. 
A part of the immense sum received during 1864, 
their “jubilee year,” is to be devoted to this object. 

The action of the Directors of the London Mission. 
ary Society, which is supported principally by the 
Independents or Congregationalists of England, is 
set forth in the following from the June number of 
their magazine : 

“The number of stupENts for missionary service, 
including those now finishing their course, amounts 
to forty-eight ; and to their Christian character, no 
less than their diligent application, their respective 
tutors have borne honorable testimony. 

“ After prolonged consideration and repeated con- 
ference between the Directors, both of town and 
country, it was unanimously resolved, in October, 
1861, to establish an Institution in which the students 
of the Society might spend the last year of their 
academical course in studies peculiar to missionary 
life and labor. The course for the year includes the 
continued study of the sacred Scriptures in the orig- 
inals; the principles and history of Christian mis- 
sions, both ancient and modern; the acquisition of 
at least the elements of the several languages in 
which the missionary is hereafter to exercise his 
ministry; and the attainment, when desirable, ‘of the 
principles and practice of surgery and medicine. In 
addition to these advantages, the missionary element 


12 


pervades and characterizes the entire engagements of 
the Institution in a degree not otherwise to be secured ; 
and the result of the first session has assured the Di- 
rectors of the beneficial influence and substantial ad- 
vantages resulting from the new arrangement. 

“The Directors, sensible that the success of the In- 

»stitution would mainly depend on the missionary spirit 
-as well as the literary qualifications of the President, 
‘were happy in appointing the Rey. John Smith Ward- 
law, M.A., to that office. The devoted labors of their 
valued friend as a missionary in India for nearly twen- 
ty years, in addition to his academical qualifications, 
afforded the assurance that he was the man for the 
Office; and the Directors would be wanting both in 
justice and gratitude did they omit to bear testimony 
to the judgment, fidelity, and Christian spirit with 
which Mr. Wardlaw has discharged the various duties 
of his position. Suitable premises were obtained for 
the Institution in the salubrious locality of Highgate, 
which have been found in all respects eligible.” 


THE EPISCOPAL MISSIONARY TRAINING-SCHOOL. 


In our own country, two plans have recently been 
adopted for increasing the number and the efficiency of 
the missionaries for the foreign field. The first plan 
‘is that of some earnest friends of missions in our own 
Church of establishing a “‘ Missionary Training-School” 
at Gambier, Ohio. The second plan is that of the Re- 
formed Dutch Synod of Chicago, in establishing a 


13 


‘“‘Theological Professorship of Missionary Traiming ” 
at the new Theological Seminary in that city. ° 

The first person to advocate the establishment of 
the Training-School was our zealous missionary, the 
Rey. J. G. Auer. His views met the approval of, and 
his efforts have been warmly sustained by, Bishops 
McIlvaine and Bedell, the Professors at Gambier, and 
other clergymen, Admiral Du Pont, and other laymen. 
Several young men have already offered themselves 
and been accepted, and under the direction and over- 
sight of the Bishops, and with the Rey. Mr. Auer as 
Principal, the “ Episcopal Missionary Training-School” 
is now in operation. 

In the circular which has been issued by the Bish- 
ops and the other persons on the Committee, it is said 
that: ‘‘ A school for missionaries is a pressing want of 
our Church. The most earnest friends of foreign mis- 
sions have long felt it. And the experience of the 
Church indicates that it is not wise, as a general rule, 
to send young men into the foreign field, however 
perfectly educated in other respects, without mission- 
ary training. Such a training is the counterpart of 
pastoral theology. The relation it bears to missions is 
the same which that department bears to the pastoral 
care. With sucha training, we believe that our for- 
eign missionaries would enter upon their work at im- 
mense advantage. J¢ is a distinct preparation by 
which a missionary labors to cope with obstacles pecu- 
liar to his work—obstacles arising from the structure 
of heathen languages and heathen society, or the de- 


14 


structive influences of a heathen demoralization which 
has been accumulating in power by the habits of a 
succession of generations.” 

As regards the education at the Training-School, the 
Committee says that “it is intended to be either sup- 
plemental or compensative. It will be supplemental 
in the following cases: to those who are pursuing 
regular studies in the Grammar School, Kenyon Col- 
lege, or Theological Seminary at Gambier, and those 
who, having been educated at other colleges or semi- 
naries, desire to avail themselves of the advantages of 
the Mission-House before going abroad. It will be 
compensative in the cases of those who can not pursue 
a thorough course in preparing for holy orders, or of 
those who wish to become lay missionaries ; being di- 
rected toward supplying deficiencies, and providing 
the most important qualifications with the least ex- 
penditure of time and labor.” 

Further details are given in the following communi- 
cation from the Rey. J. G. Auer: 


‘* REASONS FOR ESTABLISHING THE TRAINING-SCHOOL. 


“We need a certain and regular supply of mis- 
sionaries to meet the growing wants of new openings, 
and at once to fill vacancies. 

“2. As far as missionary work in heathen lands is 
different from that of the regular clergy at home, mis- 
sionaries ought to receive a special education therefor. 

“3. Young men, who could, for diverse reasons, not 
pass through other schools preparing for the ministry, 


15 


can enter the missionary school with little or much 
preparation, and they will be carried through their 
studies sooner than if they had to pass through a 
Grammar School, College, and Seminary; for young 
men, about twenty years old, can study with more 
energy than when they are mixed up with large 
classes of younger scholars ; and in classic languages, 
and some other branches, no more need be learned 
than what is essentially necessary for their future use- 
fulness. 

“4, In the missionary school, they will have time 
to prove and to mature their missionary spirit, and 
their different talents, so that, when actually engaged 
in missionary work, they will more likely hold to it 
through life. 

“‘ RECEPTION OF STUDENTS. 

“1, Christian men, from seventeen to twenty-five 
years of age, from all classes, states, and nations, of 
any previous occupation, if they have only had a good 
school education, will be accepted ; and Christian men 
from other denominations, if they object not to be- 
coming members of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
are welcome. 

“9. The candidates send a short biographical 
sketch and application, together with a testimony 
from their pastor, to Rev. J. G. Auer, Gambier, Knox 
county, Ohio, who, assisted by a committee of two, 
will prayerfully consider their papers, and in due time 
give them an answer through their pastor. 

“3. Asa rule, there will be three years’ dedication 


16 


to a preparatory course, and three years to a semi- 
nary course. 

‘‘4, Men of some classical education, or other pre- 
paration, will be advanced into a higher class at 
once, and will be received even if older than twenty- 
five. 

“During the seminary course, their theological train- 
ing will be at Bexley Hall with the theological stu- 
dents, and their missionary training at the Mission- 
House, at which latter house they will reside. In- 
struction will also be given in medicine and other 
branches of knowledge useful to the missionary. 


“LIFE IN THE MISSION-HOUSE. 


‘1, A reasonable number of hours will be given to 
diligent study, lectures, and essays. 

‘*2. Some hours will be spent in the garden, farm, 
workshop, or gymnastic exercises, both for present 
and future usefulness, exercise of the body, and rest 
of the mind. 

“3. Prayers in each class and all together, confer- 
ences among themselves and with the principal, mis- 
sionary lectures, correspondence with missionaries 
abroad, and the whole tenor of the instruction, will 
be to keep up and increase in the students a sound 
Christian and missionary spirit. 

‘‘May the Lord of the harvest send us men of the 
right spirit, and put it into the hearts of his people to 
supply all their wants, that we may more and more be 
able to do our part as a Church in filling all the earth 
with God's glory.” 


17 


To this statement of the Principal of the Institu- 
tion, we add the following from the circular letter 
above referred to : 


WANTS. 


Men—men, whose hearts the Lord has touched 
with love to perishing souls—men whose lips the 
Lord himself has opened, so that they say, ‘‘ Woe is 
me if I preach not the Gospel,” to the heathen! We 
want men of vigorous capacity in mind and body, 
men ready for sacrifice, men self-deyoted, men who 
will labor in any field (under the Foreign Committee) 
to which the Lord shall call them. 

Tuer Suprorr.—We think $250 per annum, at 
present prices, will supply all that are necessary ex- 
penditures for one student. We ask the members of 
Christ to give this moderate support to every scholar 
whom the Lord sends. We invite churches or indi- 
viduals to become responsible for one or more pupils. 

The whole term of preparatory study is intended to 
be a probation; and none will be sent out or approved 
until thoroughly tried, and found both worthy and 
competent for this high vocation. We therefore ask 
that funds, contributed for the support of scholars, 
may be placed in our hands without restrictions. 


NOTE. 

Conrrisutions for current expenses, the support of 
scholars, the establishment of scholarships, the erec- 
tion of a permanent Mission-House, the providing of a 
Missionary Library and Museum, and other purposes, 


18 


may be sent to Rev. Peter Neff, Jr., Treasurer, Gam- 
bier, Knox county, Ohio, or to either of the under- 
signed. 

Appiications for admission are to be directed to 
Rey. J. G. Auer, Mission-House, Gambier, Knox 
county, Ohio. 


G. T. BEpELt, 


C. P. McIivarng, 
J. J. McEiurney, | YT agers 


L. W. Bancrort, 
Henry Turriver, 
Wi1am Newron, 


ALFRED BLAKE, 

A, M. Morrison, Fititinen 
Perer Nerr, JR., ; 
CHARLES SHort, 

G. T. Bepeit, Chairman. 


Gambier Mission-House, July 5, 1864. 


APPENDIX. 





THE MISSION-HOUSE AT BASLE, SWITZERLAND. 


Tur Mission-House at Basle is a large, magnificent 
building, five stories high, each with thirteen windows 
in front and three in each wing. It cost half a million 
of francs. Yet every thing like luxury or ostentation 
is avoided. It does not showits broad front to the 
road. It stands a few yards back in a handsome, spa- 
cious garden, to which a simple iron gate forms the 
entrance from the road. It was built three years ago. 
The former premises, which were situated at another 
quarter of the town, were no longer fit for the pur- 
pose. Some of them, also, had to be pulled down in 
consequence of municipal arrangements. The build- 
ing of the new house was of necessity. This was ac- 
knowledged by the friends of the mission, who con- 
tributed largely to the building fund. Among them 
the noble Chr. Merian, whose bust adorns the Direct- 
ors’ room, ranked foremost. And so, surely, does the 
Basle mission among the Continental societies. It has 
not yet reached its fiftieth year, and already it has 
trained upward of four hundred messengers of the 
Good Tidings, two hundred and eighty-one of whom 


20 


are still alive, working the work of God in all zones 
and climates of the globe. Of these ninety-three are 
in the service of the Basle mission ; eleven are em- 
ployed by the Bremen Missionary Society, one by the 
Moravian Brethren, thirty-six by the Church Mission- 
ary Society, two by the English Baptist Missionary 
Society, two by the Methodists, one by the Assam 
Missionary Society, one by the American Episcopalian 
Mission; four are missionaries among the Jews ; twelve 
are in the service of the English Church in the col- 
onies ; seventy-three are ministers of German churches 
in North-America; five in South-America; two in 
Australis,; thirteen in Russia; ten in Germany ; five 
are home missionaries. Indeed, if anywhere the com- 
mandment, ‘‘Go ye into all the world,” etc., has been 
attended to, the noble band of Christian messengers 
that have proceeded from the Basle Mission-House 
have obeyed it.—From the “ Christian Work.” 








